By Amber Llovet

State Sen. Richard D. Roth’s, D-Riverside, bipartisan measure to protect California’s small businesses and the disabled community has been approved by Gov. Jerry Brown. With the governor’s signature on May 10, this new law has already taken effect.

“This is a major victory for all Californians,” said Roth. “SB269 is a bipartisan, commonsense solution that will guarantee access for disabled Californians by providing small businesses with the tools and resources necessary to comply with state and federal disability access regulations. I am glad the governor agrees with the critical need for this reform, and I am proud to have delivered this victory for California’s small businesses and disability community.”

SB269 enjoyed widespread bipartisan support and did not receive a single “no” vote throughout the legislative process. It is a narrowly crafted provision to provide businesses with much needed disability access education, resources and training, and allows small businesses that have been proactive in identifying access issues a reasonable amount of time to fix any problems identified before a lawsuit arises. The bill seeks to incentivize businesses to proactively take steps to become accessible by providing them with 120 days from receipt of a Certified Access Specialist (CASp) report to resolve any violations identified without being subject to statutory penalties or litigation costs.

“Tahoe Chamber has been working tirelessly on the ADA issue for many years in order to educate and protect our small businesses from costly and unnecessary litigation. We supported a variation of this bill last year which failed and thus we were pleased to see Sen. Roth reintroduce it again this year and have supported it’s journey through the legislative process this session. This is another great step in ensuring that the Tahoe business community thrives,” said B Gorman, CEO of Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

Tahoe Chamber is a bi-state chamber with 650 members who operate businesses in both states. The chamber’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC) monitors legislation in both Nevada and California to ensure we are representing our members and communicating new laws that impact business.

Amber Llovet is communications coordinator for Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.